Jelly Roll is learning firsthand just how physically challenging it can be to prepare for a WWE match.
The country music hitmaker has been training in preparation for the WWE SummerSlam for the past few months, and in a recent ESPN interview, he shared that he was injured the very first week of training.
Jelly Roll and his tag team partner, WWE superstar Randy Orton, appeared on a recent episode of ESPN’s Get Up. During the chat, Jelly Roll said, “I broke my pinky week one of training by accident…it’s a constant collision.”
Gesturing to Orton, Jelly Roll added, “Look at this mountain of a man. I walked in and I looked small compared to the guy I’m wrestling.”
Orton replied, “Well, that’s because you lost 200 freakin’ pounds,” referring to Jelly Roll’s much-publicized, successful journey toward getting healthier.
“Yeah, baby!” Jelly Roll said with his signature enthusiasm.
Earlier in the interview, Jelly Roll offered up praise and admiration for the professional wrestlers of WWE.
“I gave it everything I had for a couple of months, I dedicated my life to it, and I still can’t crack half of the code, a quarter of the code, that actually is this thing. But it’s been awesome. It taught me a lot about myself,” he said.
He also added that the challenges of training were intense. “Listen, man, that ‘Wrestlin’s fake’ stuff has to go out the door. There’s no fake way to land on a piece of plywood in front of 60,000 people. There’s no fake way to go over a cable rope in front of 65,000 people.”
The WWE SummerSlam takes place Saturday (Aug. 2) and Sunday (Aug. 3). Orton and Jelly Roll will take on Drew McIntyre and Logan Paul.
Watch the interview below: